From the past to the present
by Blackdragon159
Summary: This is a McShep story, which means slash. This is about John and Rodney and how they met in High School. I'm starting it with a low rating but it will probably go up later on. You are warned that it's slash so don't flame me for that.DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

From the Past to The Present.

Chapter 1

* * *

It was the start of the spring term at Northwest Toronto High school. Northwest Toronto wasn't a large school but it was a well known school, at least in the academic circuits.

Northwest Toronto had won many academic awards during the past two years; sure they had won before but not this many times. Many speculated about the reason, some said that the students cheated and some even said that they put steroids in the school lunch, all of the speculations were preposterous, and the real reason was M. Rodney McKay, 17, who was a Genius (his own words).

It was a normal day for High school student Rodney McKay. He was staying late in the school lab to work more on his Science project. His teachers had given him permission to stay on the condition that he told the janitor when he left so that he also could go home.

He stood by a bench in the lab, he was really happy to be alone because then he could drop a little of the mask the he wore everyday.

He looked at the watch, which he had on his left wrist, and it read 6 Pm and he figured that he needed a break because he had worked for about three hours and that was a long time and he needed to go to the bathroom anyway.

He walked out of the room and stood outside the door for a couple of seconds while he thought out the quickest way to one of the bathrooms from there. He turned right and walked down the corridor and rounded a corner and reached the bathroom.

After about five minutes in which three he used to eat a bar of chocolate and drink a coke that he had bought in one of the vending machines that were beside the bathroom door. Otherwise when he worked at home he usually drank coffee but there weren't any coffee machines in the school except for the teachers lounge and he wasn't allowed in there even how much he begged the teachers. The coffee wasn't the only reason why Rodney wanted to be allowed into the teachers' lounge the other reason was that inside the teachers' lounge Rodney would be _safe. _

Safe from all the harsh and bad words of the other people that went to the school threw at him just because he was smarter than them, got better grades and refused to do their homework.

It was the beatings that were the worst and those were mostly from the hockey and football teams.

He walked out of the bathroom and towards the lab he was using he rounded the corner again and walked in to the room.

He hadn't even gotten halfway through the door when he stopped. Dead silent and just watched while a guy who had a very athletic body stood and read his notes. Rodney sputtered for a moment while he wanted to either run, screaming away from there or scream at the guy for touching his things. He chose the latter.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!" he screamed at the guy.

* * *

In a different part of the school another 17 tear old boy was trying t hide from the janitor whom he had gotten a detention with just because he had pulled a little prank on the History teacher. It wasn't his fault that she was a lot more boring than any other teacher he ever had at the other schools he's been to.

The boys' name was John Sheppard and he had only been to the school for three weeks before being punished for something stupid that he had done. In the other schools he had been to they waited at least two months before punishing people, but this _was _Canada and all he other schools he had attended were American maybe they had different rules here, thought John to himself when he walked down another abandoned corridor in the school.

John also thought that it was really unfair that he had to stay at the school this late just because he had to assist the janitor, and the janitor just _had _to stay late because some straight A student (or a major geek in Johns' opinion) wanted to stay and use some of the school's equipment and the janitor had to wait for him to finish, and if the janitor stayed then John stayed to.

He walked down another empty corridor filled with lockers scruff marks from all the sneakers that had walked in the corridor during the years and John started wondering what his father would say when he found out that he had gotten in trouble _if_ he found out he added because the teacher who had called home, to tell his father about the prank and the detention, had not been able to get a hold of him and had asked John if the number was their real phone number.

John turned another corner and he had now reached the corridor in which the labs were. He walked on when he saw light shining from one of the rooms and he figured that there was where the student (geek) who was the reason John was here this late.

John walked into the room unannounced and looked around and saw… no one, no geek, no teacher and no strange alien that he had never before seen was in the room.

The only thing in the room except for John was a strange box and a bunch of schematics beside it.

He walked over to the table the box was laying on and looked at the schematics. The paper was full of equations and John looked them over and found only a minor fault.

John was really good at math and that was one of the only reasons he hadn't been made to re-take a year _yet._

He stood by the desk reading the notes he had in his hands and was very into it when he had come to the second paper.

He was so into it that he almost jumps right up in the air when he heard someone scream at him, really loud.

He turned around with the papers in hand and stared at the guy standing in the doorway.

John looked at the guy from the top of his head to the edges of his shoes. John thought that the guy was handsome, gorgeous and absolutely smoking _HOT _initialized and caps locked, but by the way the guy was holding himself he didn't know it himself.

John was brought back to reality when the guy who he just had started to think very naughty thought about started screaming at him very loud.

"Do you _know _what you're doing! You could be destroying my work! I've been working on this for weeks and you could have ruined everything!" The guy screamed at him at the same time that John wondered how long he could hold his breath.

"I'm really sorry about this. The papers were just laying there and there was no one here and I just peeked and two of your equations are wrong.. I'm sorry… I'm John by the way…" John rambled trying to get the guy to quiet down before the janitor came their way.

"And I.. What do you mean two of my equations are wrong? How do you know? I'm Rodney McKay if you didn't know…" The guy screamed looking bewildered at John.

"Well… Come here and let me show you which ones, it's not great errors but they're still errors so…" John said while looking at Rodney and trying not to embarrass him self further.

Rodney walked cautiously over to John and looked over his shoulder at the notes he held in his hand.

John showed him the places where he thought he had found some faults and after he had explained exactly what he thought was wrong Rodney was staring dumbfounded at hi, and John just hoped that it was a good thing.

"How did _you _know this, I mean you look like a jock and act like one and as far as I know a jock can't figure out an equation as hard as this." Rodney said at the same time as his hands painted a picture of his words in the air.

"You think I'm a jock! Do I really look like a typical jock? I do track but I don't think that it's a sport for jocks…. I might not be the best student but I know math so that was not too hard…. What is it you're building anyway?" asked John and looked curiously at Rodney who had started to fidget right after the question was asked.

"It's for the science fair next month. It…it's a model of an atomic-bomb, very complex it's really worth the first price…" Rodney said as they walked over to the table where the box (bomb) lay.

John stared at the box, bomb he reminded himself, and tried to figure out what sort of person Rodney was. He did build a bomb in school for a science fair!

"A bomb!" John exclaimed after a couple of seconds he used to think things over.

"Not a working one… I mean where would I get Uranium or other radioactive substances? Don't you know that that's illegal, even in Canada…." Rodney said all the while he flayed his arms in the air as if he wanted to say just how preposterous that thought was.

"All right, all right calm down it's not like I could tell anyone, I don't know anyone at this school except for those two weird guys that watched me while I pranked the History teacher…" John said while he got lost in the memory of the History teacher running around the room away from the firecrackers he had put underneath her chair right after he had lit the fuse.

Rodney looked at John like he had suddenly grown two heads then a grin started to form on his face then he said:

"You pranked Ms Rudrom? Really, oh how I'd loved to be in your class when you did that… She's the most boring teacher at this school, but she knows history… I think I'm not that interested in how people were so stupid that they thought that earth was flat and that god controlled everything… You're not one of those "God smite me.." people right? You don't look like one.." Rodney said while he looked curiously at John as if he had the answers to every question of the universe.

John smirked at him, but his smirk disappeared when he heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside of the room.

Both John and Rodney turned towards the door and watched as the janitor walked in through the door, well walked might not be the right word it was more like stormed, and then h started yelling at John about how he shouldn't be there, he should walk through the halls and try to see if there was anyone there, not disturb a hardworking student with his antics.

After the speech John turned to Rodney telling him how _sorry _he was for disturbing hi and that it wouldn't ever happen again if his brain had anything to say in the matter, he then turned towards the janitor and said that he was going home and that he would see him at his other detention the next day.

John walked out of the school and walked the now almost familiar route home; well he had never actually known what "home" was, he and his father had moved too many times the past seven or so years that he had forgotten what home felt like.

He walked home with a giddy feeling in the pit of his stomach and he knew why, he had just met the person who he thought could be his soul mate…if he believed in that sort of thing.

* * *

**AN: **Please tell me what you think, I will write more soon, chapter 2 is already finnished it just needs a bit of looking through it... I hope you like it...


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: **I just figured that I forgot to put a disclamer on the last chapter so here it is: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or any of the characters, they belong to Brad Wright and the good people at Metro Golden Myers (MGM)... I also thank everyone that has reviewed..Well here's chapter two,Read on.

* * *

Chapter 2.

Rodney left the school a couple of minutes after John and the janitor had left the lab, he didn't live that far away from the school so it didn't take to much time for him to walk home, but if he had taken an hour he knew that no one would have noticed, maybe his 12 year old sister.

Rodney unlocked the door to the apartment he, his parents and sister lived in, he walked inside and when he had walked through the hallway and into the living room where he saw his sister laying on the couch, asleep. He did as any other big brother should have done in that kind of situation, he woke her up.

His sister, whose name is Jennifer but she preferred Jeannie, woke up, looked bleary eyed at him, smiled, stood up and walked into her room to sleep.

Rodney loved his little sister even though he didn't show it much.

After he had been in the kitchen and taken a snack he went into his room to try and get some sleep.

Rodney tried to sleep, really he did, but he couldn't because his mind was plagued with images of John Sheppard over and over again and with those images he had feeling that he really didn't want to analyse.

When Rodney understood that he wasn't able to go to sleep he stood up and walked into the living room and sat down in front of the TV and watched some boring show until he fell asleep.

Rodney woke up early the next morning with an ace in his neck and back. He looked at the watch he had on his wrist and saw that he had three hours until his first class of the day so he had plenty of time to shower, eat breakfast and wake up his sister.

Rodney and Jeannie's parents were almost never home, they were either at work or out by them selves, because of this Rodney and Jeannie had mostly been brought up and raised by their own rules. 

Rodney walked out of the house together with his sister, they both had their bags and lunch money, they walked together to school because both the high school and the junior high school where at the same place.

When Rodney arrived he still had a couple of minutes to spare so he walked to his locker, put some of the things from his bag and took the books he needed for the three classes he had next. After he had gotten his thins he skulked quietly through the corridors towards his classroom, he tried to be invisible but it didn't work every time. 

He tried to be invisible and see-through every day he was in school because he knew what would happen if someone from the hockey or football teams saw him, they would probably beat him up they had locked him in a closet ones that he was stuck in until the janitor came and unlocked it.

He was glad that he got to his class without bumping into anyone or anything; he got a little clumsy sometimes.

It was Friday and on Fridays Rodney's classes ended after lunch and for other people that meant that you could go home and do something fun with the extra time but for Rodney it meant that he cold stay at the lab a little bit longer. 

He liked the quiet of the school when no one was there, when no one could disturb him when he worked.

He stood by the bench and read through the calculations he did the day before and looked at the ones he had outlined. He worked quietly for about an hour but then he stopped and turned around, he could swear that he heard something from behind him, but when he started to look around he didn't see anyone.

He turned back to his work and had just begun to work again when he heard the sound again. He didn't even have the time to turn around before he saw someone standing right behind him. The person behind him was looking at his calculations from behind his shoulder. After five minutes of having someone breathing down his neck, even with the oddly comfortable feeling, Rodney had had enough so he turned around and opened his mouth to yell at… John.

Rodney had the words on his tongue but his mouth had become so dry that he couldn't get a single word out, so he stood there in front of John with his mouth open staring at him.

"Are you going to stand there staring at me, or are you going to… you know say something or have you gone momentarily mute?" John said with a grin starting to form on his face.

"I'm not mute, and I was just thinking of what kind of prank you've pulled now, because you're here and all…. So what have you done or is it the same as yesterday? And do you really go to this school, 'cause I didn't see you here today.. until now…" Rodney rambled trying to search for something intelligent to say, he just thought that it was a little hard while John stood in front of him looking so… delicious.

The grin on Johns face was now a full out smile and it looked as though he almost couldn't stop himself from either laughing or blurting out a weird or bad retort but he managed.

"I'm here for the same prank as yesterday, I don't do a different prank every day I'm inventive but not _that _inventive. I do go to this school, we probably just don't have the same classes as each other I mean you're a genius and all so you go to all of those "special classes right? for smart people… If I'm correct we probably have math together but I'm not sure…" John said all the while he looked really cocky, it was a good look on him, Rodney thought.

Rodney who was starting to get the control of his tongue back so it wouldn't just blurt out thins randomly said:

"What are you doing _here? _I mean I know that you have detention and all but what are you doing in _this _lab with me? I really don't think that it will help your status in the school at all."

John had started to stare at Rodney half the way during his little speech and when he was done John kept looking at him oddly but weren't staring as intensely anymore.

He looked as if he was battling himself in the decision if he should answer or if he should start to run out of the room and never return. When he looked calmer and not as though he would jump out of the window to get out of there, he wouldn't even fall that far the classroom was on the first floor, he said:

"I'm here because I want to, I think you're… interesting and I get really bored hanging around losers all day long. If you're trying to scare me into leaving with the whole 'You'll be losing status by being her' well then you're really wrong. I don't have a status, I've only been here a week. So how long have you gotten on the bomb?" John asked and the cocky look was back.

"Well…" and then Rodney and John started talking about equations and formulas for about twenty minutes before Rodney said that he had to leave because he had promised his sister to be home soon.

"So… I'll see you in school?" asked Rodney while looking unsurely at his shoes.

"Sure, it's Math on Monday right? I always sit in the backs of classrooms so look for me there… Have fun with your sister" said John and waved after him as he went out the door and into the corridor.

* * *

John went home about fifteen minutes after Rodney, he didn't see the point of staying longer. The only reason he went and didn't stay at home reading a comic or watching Television was because of Rodney.

He was for once glad that he and his dad had moved here, and the reason was Rodney. He was dreading the day his father would come into his room and say "Son, we have to move again, I'm being relocated somewhere else. Sorry." When he had been at most of the other schools he waited for it, 'cause that would mean that he could leave all the people that either looked down on him or adored him. He hated being the centre of attention because that would mean that he had to talk to them, and he either thought the people were mean, stupid or just uninteresting.

He came "home" to an empty house with almost no personality in it, no pictures on the walls, no diplomas or awards just plane yellow ugly walls, the only room that looked even lived in was the bathroom.

He went into the kitchen and fixed himself a snack that he could eat while watching television.

He went into the living room, sat down on the sofa and turned the television on. He flipped through a bunch of different channels and stopped when he saw that Star Trek were on. He liked Star Trek he liked Spock the most 'cause he was smart and he liked smart people.

John didn't know how tired he was until he woke up and saw that it was three o'clock Saturday morning. He stood up and went to bed after that.

The next morning he sat by the kitchen table eating toast for breakfast and rifling through the newspaper looking mostly at the comics. He didn't even worry one bit about the reason why his father hadn't been home last night.

His thoughts often went to the same topic, Rodney McKay. He kept wondering where he lived and what he was doing right that moment.

After he had been sitting by the table for a bit he stood up and looked through some drawer for a phonebook. When he had found one he sat down on the table again. 

He reached for the phone that was on the sink, then he put it on the table. He then thumbed through the phonebook looking for the name McKay. 

After about twenty minutes of Marvils and Mendants and other strange last names he finally found McKay and by that time he was really happy that the name McKay wasn't all that common. 

He dialled the phone number and double-checked the number twice before exhaling and waiting nervously between ring tones for someone to answer.

"McKay residence whom do you seek?" said a female voice, the words were spoken as though the girl really didn't want to talk.

"Ehm… I want to talk to Rodney… Is he there?" asked John trying desperately to keep the nervous quiver out of his voice.

"Rodney? Really, this isn't just a prank, right?" the girl on the other end asked. John wondered how many ties that had happened before for the girl to ask with so much hostility.

"NO! Why would anyone do that! I just want to speak with him… if he's home could you et him?" asked John wondering, not for the first time, if this was a bad idea.

"ok, I'll get him for you, but I'm warning you if this is a prank then I will hunt you down, cut your balls off and force feed them to you. Who shall I say it's from?" the question might just be a rouse to get to know his name without being rude and asking him.

"My name's John… John Sheppard I think he knows who I am…" John said hoping that she would just stop asking questions and go and get Rodney, it couldn't be that hard.

"ok, _John_ I'll get him here for you then…" the girl said with so much spite that he hoped that her phone didn't burn up from the heat.

"MEREDITH!" John heard the girl yell through the phone, he started to wonder who she yelled for. He was searching for Rodney not someone name Meredith, he didn't know any girls at the school.

"hi, who is it I'm talking to?" asked a male voice that John immediately recognised as Rodney asked.

" Hi, is this Rodney? I don't know if you remembered me I'm John, we met two days ago and again yesterday…." Said John and hoped that Rodney didn't have a horrible memory and forgot about him after a day.

"Yeah this is Rodney, why are you calling me anyway; I mean I don't remember telling you my number. If you remember me telling you my number please tell me when, 'cause I really don't want to have amnesia or something…." Rodney was rambling, John actually thought that it was kind of endearing most of the time but it was kind of weird right now.

"HI Rodney, No you didn't give me your number but I wanted to talk to you so I used a thing called _the phonebook _to find you. And I did… SO I've got a question for you then you can ask me all the questions you want. Here it goes: Who's Meredith?" John asked and hoped that Rodney would answer him truthfully.

"All right, I'm going to answer you but you have to promise that you won't laugh. Promise?" Rodney asked clearly worried.

"Promise." John answered truthfully.

"ok, Meredith is me, I'm Meredith, got it. Before you ask if it's my name when I'm cross dressing or something stupid like that. Meredith is the name that my parents made me have as a first name.. so what do you think?" When he asked the last question he sounded a lot less confident than when he talked about his name..

"First of all, the cross dressing comment, well I would never say that 'cause I don't think that you would look that good in heals, I'm sorry but I don't think you have the body type for it… What I am wondering is, Are your parents hippies, by any chance?" John asked and tried to put as much humour as possible into the words as possible.

He didn't hear anything for a couple of seconds, he started to think that Rodney had hung up on him, then: "Hippies? I don't know, maybe. They don't have long hair and beards but I don't see them that much so what do I know? Lots but not about them, I mean I _am_ a genius…" Rodney said, John didn't know if he had _meant_ to sound smug but he didn't care either way.

After that little brake in their conversation, John and Rodney started to flow more easily and 

all of a sudden they noticed that they had talked for over an hour.

During that hour they decided that they would go to a movie the next day, Star Wars episode 2 The Empire Strikes Back, they would meet the next day around two at the movie theatre that wasn't far from the school. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

John stood nervously outside of the movie theatre waiting for Rodney to come and meet him. His father had almost thought that he had gone mad when he saw that John had woken up before noon on a Saturday morning. The only time that he had seen John go up before noon was when Star Wars (both of them) had their premiers. John was a real closet geek and Rodney was the only one besides his parents that he had revealed that to.

John was so completely lost in his thoughts when he heard someone clear their throat right behind him. John jumped almost three meters into the air and then he turned around and saw Rodney standing right behind him, with a small smile on his face. The smile could be that he was happy to see John or it could be the surprised look that was on John's face, John hoped that it was the first option.

"Hi, I didn't see you there, or hear you." Said John, his voice quivering with a bit of shock left from being scared by Rodney. Rodney's smile became a little bigger and then he said:

"Well, are we going to see the movie or are we going to stand out here all day 'till you have recovered from your shock?"

"Why are you asking?" asked John and looked expectantly at Rodney for any sign of him not wanting to see the movie with him, he didn't find any.

"Well, I was wondering if I should go and ask for a chair so that I won't have to stand for over an hour. I have a bad back you know..." Rodney said and is smile had now changed into a smirk.

"I'm fine, now. So, shall we..." John said and gestured towards the ticket booth where they could buy their tickets.

Rodney followed John and they bought their tickets and then they walked into the lobby to get their drinks and popcorn's.

The movie theatre was very small and they only showed four movies a time, and most of them had been there for a couple of months, so there wasn't that many people there to watch movies in the middle of the day. The line they stood in wasn't that long so they got their snacks and then they entered the actual theatre where the movie was being showed. They sat down somewhere in the middle, they were the only ones in the theatre, at the moment anyway.

They sat next to each other making barbs about the pre-movie commercials. It took about half an hour before the movie started. Both of them were very quiet and neither said a word to each other during the whole movie.

Even though John had seen the movie before, about five times, he just couldn't stop himself from gasping a bit when Darth Vader said "No Luke, _I_ am your father." He hoped that Rodney didn't think that it was too annoying.

The thing John didn't notice was that Rodney gasped as well in the end.

They walked out of the movie theatre when the curtain had dropped and the lighting had come up again. They started talking when they came out into the lobby. Rodney asked:

"So, that was that the first time you've seen the movie?" John stared at him, and then he said:

"No, this is about… the sixth time I've seen The Empire Strikes Back, I saw A New Hope about seventeen times, in the movies. I have the video... You?" John could see a twinkle of astonishment in Rodney's face that he hid very well.

"I knew that you were a closet geek!" said Rodney and smirked at John.

"Really, how?" said John nervously, he actually thought that he was very hard to read.

"Oh, don't worry; I don't think that anyone else has figured it out. As to how…Well it's just my brilliant interpersonal skills." Said Rodney, with a smile on his face. They had by now sat down in a café tat was next door to the movie theatre.

"Ha, now you've got to be lying to me. I talked with your sister and se sounded really surprised that you could be nice and friendly with someone…Please tell me how you found out, it's supposed to be one of the biggest state secrets ever!" said John sounding really serious, even though he had puppy dog eyes during the whole sentence. Rodney gave him a look that clearly said 'Oh, _please._' Then he said;

"A big state secret huh? Bigger than the moon landing? Did you know that people are saying that the moon landing happened in a studio?"

"Oh, ha ha, you are _so _funny." John said, and then he leaned over the table and whispered in Rodney's ear. "If you didn't catch that, I was sarcastic." He then sat back down with a smirk on his face looking smug. The only thing Rodney had done during the whole exchange was raising an eyebrow.

John stood up after a moment, he was going to get something to eat and drink. He turned to Rodney who looked at him with wondering eyes and said:

"I was thinking of going to the counter and ordering something, do you want something?"

"I'll have whatever you're having, except if whatever you're having has citrus in it, I'm allergic you know." said Rodney.

John started walking over to the counter to order something. It took about five minutes for him to reach the register because there were two people before him in line. When he reached it he ordered two chocolate cakes and two Cokes, he made sure to ask if there were anything citrus in the cakes, there weren't. While he zigzagged through the tables with a tray in hand he started thinking, could this be thought as a date?

When he got back to their table with the tray and cakes, Rodney sat and waited patiently on him. He sat down and Rodney looked at what he had bought, then he said:

"You're sure that there isn't any trace of citrus in here, 'cause I know that there's a lot of weird shop people who likes to mix citrus and chocolate…"

"Nope, not a trace, I asked." said John and took his cake piece from the tray and started to eat it. Rodney stared at his own cake, as if he could figure out the secrets of the universe if only it would melt, then he started to eat it.

John looked at Rodney while he ate; he noticed that Rodney ate as a starved man who didn't know when his next meal would be.

"What are you staring at?" asked Rodney, John could hear the hostility rising in his voice.

"Nothing, I'm just wondering if you actually ate the snacks you bought at the movies, 'cause you're eating as though you haven't eaten in days…" John said and smiled the friendliest smile he could muster towards Rodney. Rodney started to defend himself: "I did eat it's just…" Then he noticed John smile and said; "Oh, you're joking…"

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while then John said:

"Let's go to the zoo!" Rodney looked at him as though he had something in between his teeth and Rodney was afraid to point it out, and wondered why he didn't notice it himself.

"Why?!" He asked.

"Because it's fun, and I can't think of anything else to do and I really don't feel like going home yet… So shall we go to the Zoo?" John said and tried the puppy dog eyes again; he really hoped that they worked this time.

"OK, we'll go. But I'm only doing this because you look really pathetic right now and I think that if I leave you alone then you'll do something really weird and rash and I have a feeling that the police will be called in." said Rodney and stood up for them to leave.

John stood up and followed Rodney out of the Café and into the now noisy street. They walked for about a block with John leading and Rodney following, until Rodney asked:

"Do you even know where the Zoo is, or are you just walking without knowing where your destination lies?"

"I know where the Zoo is, but I also know a shortcut and that's the road I'm taking." John

Said sounding a bit cocky.

* * *

Twenty minutes later…

* * *

John and Rodney stood in an alley not knowing where they were, well John didn't know where he was but he had a feeling that Rodney did though.

"Do you know where we are?" asked Rodney and looked pointedly at John.

"No, do you?" John said and tried to look as small and insignificant as possible, it didn't work.

"Wasn't you the one who knew a so called 'shortcut'" Rodney said with a mocking tone of voice. "I'm doing this just because I pity you" he then walked out of the alley and into the street, John followed him. Rodney led him five blocks east then he turned west and they walked for another three blocks until both of them could see the entrance to the Zoo.

They walked up to the register and Rodney bought them both tickets so that they could enter. The Zoo was full of the sound of children screaming for their parents and the smell of manure, every five minutes a child's name was called out from the speaker and a voice asking them to go to the entrance because their parents were waiting there for them. John had always loved the zoo, he and his other had gone to the different zoo's and parks in the different towns they had been in. John hadn't been at a Zoo since his mother had died and he had no idea why he had asked Rodney to go to the zoo.

They walked around for a bit, then John saw a stand that sold cotton candy and he said:

"Come on, let's buy cotton candy!" Rodney looked at him as if he was crazy, he probably was but who was sane nowadays?

"Do you _know _how much sugar it is in those?!" Said Rodney and stared at John when he walked over to the stand to buy one.

"Does that mean that you don't want one? It's on me…" John said and smiled sweetly towards him.

"Ok, if it's on you then I want one." Rodney said and smiled at him.

John bought two pink, fluffy cotton candies; he gave one to Rodney and took one for himself. They walked for a little while longer, they went to the lion's cages and stood there watching the lions while they ate their sticky, sweet cotton candy. The comfortable silence they had was interrupted by a sudden spike in the lions movements, the lions that had been lying comfortable in the sun had all of a sudden stood up and started to move around.

John and Rodney stared at the startled lions as they moved around agitated in their pen. John asked Rodney:

"What's got them all worked up?" Rodney looked to the side at John and said:

"Well it could be that they've scented your awful breath or it could be those rocks that's being thrown at them." Then he pointed at the rocks propelling through the air towards the lions.

John looked around trying to find the source of the rock throwing, he found it. It was a group of about five guys standing on the other side of the pen, laughing and throwing the rocks. He pointed tem out to Rodney who stared at them then he ducked out of view of the guys when they turned towards their direction. John sat down next to him on the ground and asked:

"Why did you just duck and sat down here? I mean do you know how dirty the ground here is? There could be tons of different rectal diseases just waiting for someone to sit down and get them…" He smiled and tried to get Rodney to see some humor in the whole thing.

"I'm hiding because I know those guys and I don't want them to see me. The last time I met them it didn't go that well…" He said and then he rolled his eyes at John.

They sat there for a little bit, both of them lost in their thoughts. When John spotted the guys he thought that he had seen them somewhere before, they probably went to the same school as both John and Rodney. He sat there on the sunny day next to Rodney thinking about whom the guys could be and then it hit him, like a brick falling from the sky. They were Todd and his gang, they were some _real_ jocks, not fake like John. John had met the whole gang together with Todd on his fist day at North West Toronto high school. They had tried to get him to join their gang, almost everyone in the school followed them because they were the _cool_ kids. John had said no.

"So are we going to sit here all day or what? Sure we do have sustenance but I think we're going to need water if we're going to stay here permanently, don't you?" asked John and looked at Rodney who hadn't done anything during the last five minutes except for taking a bite of his cotton candy from time to time.

Rodney hadn't time to answer because both of them got distracted by a sudden block of sunlight right above them. It was Todd and his gang.

**

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**

A/N:

I'm thinking, an update a week is enough, don't you? Please everyone who reads, please I beg of you on my bare knees, review... And read of course otherwise it would be weird to review about soemthing you don't know about... PLease tell me what you think... Otherwise I might quit... 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

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It was easy to see that Todd was the leader of the gang, everyone stood behind him and John could see that the guys behind Todd waited for a sign from him. John tried to look as stupid as he could to throw them of guard when they were going to talk with him, he didn't know if it was going to work.

"Hey, Shep. What are you doing here with _him_?" asked Todd, when he said the word "him" he made it sound like it was an insult.

"Well Todd, I'm allowed to be with whoever I want wherever I want, I don't work for you. You're not my boss." John said and smiled sweetly towards Todd.

John and Rodney sat still on the ground, John looking up into Todd's face and Rodney looking down into the dirt as though it could tell him the answers to all universes' questions.

Todd didn't seem pleased with their behaviors and John could see that his cronies knew that because all of them started to stomp and twist around restlessly like animals feeling danger.

John got tired at sitting on the ground so he stood up to walk away and get Rodney with him, but that wasn't what happened. The minute John left the safety of the ground he was jumped by three of the guys, he didn't even know when they turned him into an enemy.

He saw two of the guys going for Rodney and he just knew that they had to get away from there as fast as possible with as little damages as possible or they would be in a lot of trouble.

What the guys that were holding him didn't know was that John was very well trained in defending himself. His dad made him go to with him every time he had a seminar on how to defend yourself in the marines. His dad had also taught him most of the things he showed other people how to do. He started teaching him one day when he came home from a new school with a black eye and broken nose because someone had beaten him up for being the new kid.

John got free of the people who held him with a few pointed kicks to the right places. The two who held Rodney and Todd who had started hitting him in the stomach stared at him in shock for enough time for Rodney to get away and then both of them ran.

They ran out of the Zoo and into the streets. They ran for a couple of blocks until both of them were so tired that they had to sit down for a while. They sat down on the edge of the sidewalk to catch their breath. John was afraid to look at Rodney because he was afraid that he would be mad at him or worse have that hurtful look in his eyes that John had seen a glimpse of before.

John chanced a glance towards Rodney and saw that Rodney was looking at him. John had seen the same look in Rodney's eyes before when he had watched him work on the bomb. It was a calculating look. Rodney averted his eyes to the ground when he saw that John was looking at him, but not before their eyes connected and a look of understanding and friendship passed between them. John wasn't sure what they were understanding together but it was a major understanding.

John stood up from the sidewalk and walked over so that he stood right behind Rodney. He touched Rodney's shoulder so that he noticed him. Rodney looked up at him and John said:

"I'm tired of sitting here. Let's go somewhere else!"

"Where to Einstein?" Rodney said with some hostility in his voice.

"Well I was thinking about going to a comic bookstore, if you know where one is of course. If you don't want me to lead again." John said and looked at Rodney with a questioning look.

"I know a comic bookstore not so far away from here. I can take us both safely there if you'd be so kind to help me up." Rodney said and took his hand out for John to take.

John smiled at Rodney and helped him of the ground. He let go of Rodney's hand when he was standing safely on his own two feet, whose business was it if he held onto the hand a little bit longer than necessary?

They walked together, with Rodney leading for about six blocks until they reached a small neighborhood with many stores. They walked into a store with comic books and small figurines in the windows. When they got into the store they saw that it was almost completely deserted except for the person at the register.

John walked over to a shelf with a sign over it that said 'Marvel' above it and looked at a few. He took the newest number of _The amazing Spiderman _and started reading it. He was so into what he was reading that he didn't notice that Rodney came up behind him, until he spoke.

"I didn't know that you read comic books. Or did you just take the first one you saw and started reading it?" said Rodney.

"There's many things that you don't know about me. I like comics, this one is new so I haven't gotten it yet. I think that I'm going to buy it." Said John and smiled at Rodney.

"Is that the newest one?! I've been waiting weeks for that one to come out in stores. How much does it cost?" asked Rodney and looked at the shelf for another copy. He found one and turned it around to see its price tag.

They decided silently to take their comics up to the register and pay for them.

They walked out of the store into the sunlit street and John looked at Rodney and said:

"I'm thirsty, do you know someplace we can get something to drink?"

"Yes, I know a place not too far from here, let's go!" Rodney said, he looked parched.

He lead the way to a small kiosk about a block away.

They bought a Coke and an ice-cream each. Then, after that, they walked around for a while and ate their ice-creams and talked a little.

John saw that the sun started to go down and he stopped turned to Rodney and said:

"I think that I have to go home now or my dad will be angry, _if _he's home." Rodney looked a bit sad that he had to leave he looked s though he would say something important but he only said:

"Okay, I think that my sister's getting worried so I'm probably going home as well."

"Ehm… I'm wondering what you're doing tomorrow, they're having an Star Trek:TOS marathon on channel 8 and I'm wondering if you'd like to watch it with me…" John asked and tried his best puppy-dog-wyes towards Rodney.

"I don't know…" Rodney said hesitantly.

"Come on… Chips, Coca Cola, candy science fiction. Please…"John said and pouted lip towards Rodney.

"OK, when does it start?" Rodney said finally.

"I'll call you tomorrow morning, ok? Is there anytime that I shouldn't call?" John asked.

"No, you can call anytime if you wake my sister up you'll be the one she yells at." Said Rodney and smiled.

"I _really _have to go now. Bye!" said John and started walking away. He turned around and waived towards Rodney as he walked.

John came home to an empty house, there was a note on the kitchen table explaining that his dad had to o on an emergency at the base and would be home tomorrow, earliest.

John wasn't that disappointed he was expecting it, but that didn't mean that he liked it. He went over to the freezer and took a frozen dinner to heat, even though he had eaten ice-cream he was hungry.

John watched some TV but there was nothing good to watch, so he went to bed.

He was an insomniac so he was very surprised that he fell asleep immediately.

He woke up the next morning at about 3 am, he stood up and walked out into the hall. He walked up to his jacket and took out the comic book he bought before and then he sat down on a couch in the living room. He read it and after that he went into his room which had a couple of boxes with his stuff in it. He went over to a box that was labeled _Clothes, _but there weren't clothes in it,he opened it and took out his comic book collection.

John cataloged everything, he liked to sort things. He took all of the comics and put them all on the floor, then he started to sort them by number, year and also by the author.

When he had finished he looked at his watch and saw that he had been up for three hours and that it was 6 am. He felt a bit tired and went back to bed.

He woke up when his alarm, which he had forgot to turn of, rang at 9 am. He walked out into the kitchen and took something out of the cabinets to eat. He ate and then he read the paper that he had gotten from the lawn earlier. He leafed through it until he came to the TV-chart of the day and started to look for the Star Trek marathon. He found it and it said that the marathon would start at 2 pm.

He hovered over the phone in the kitchen, he wasn't sure if he should call Rodney now or wait until about noon.

After a couple of minutes of restless hovering he decided to just pick up the phone and call Rodney.

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_**A/N: **This chapter's a little bit shorter than the others but I hope that the people that reads this will enjoy, I was a little bit short on time and computer access when I wrote it... For disclaimer see chapter 2. PLEASE review, when someone reviews I get inspired to write another chapter, soon._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

* * *

John dialed Rodney's number on the phone and waited anxiously for someone to pick up.

"McKay." Said a tired woman's voice on the other end.

"Hi, ehm… My name's John Sheppard and I'm wondering if Rodney's there?" John said nervously.

"You're searching for Rodney?! There's no Rodney here… Oh you mean Meredith. Yeah he's here I'll get him." The woman said, John heard that she covered the phone with her hand then she screamed loudly; "Meredith!"

John heard some yelling but it was too distorted for John to be able to hear properly.

Someone took away the hand from the phone and he heard Rodney's voice saying:

"Hi, do you know what time it is? I mean I know that I told you to call whenever but isn't it a bit early, or do you live in a completely different time zone than everyone else?"

"I knew that you'd be grumpy in the mornings, I'm sorry but I couldn't wait. You weren't actually asleep were you?" John asked and really hoped that he wouldn't had woken Rodney.

"No, I wasn't asleep I got up at 6 am, my parents got home then, they were kind of loud… So, when's the marathon starting?" Rodney asked, John heard that he was trying to change the subject but he didn't mind.

"Well it's starting at two and goes on until tomorrow, I'm kind of happy that we don't have any school tomorrow." Said John and smiled into the receiver as if Rodney could see it.

"Alright, wait did you say that we don't have any school tomorrow? Why not?" Rodney asked worried as if the world was ending tomorrow and he hadn't gotten the memo.

"It's not school tomorrow because the teachers are on a conference, didn't you listen when they had the assembly in the gym? Even I did! Well if you're wondering you can get here anytime, I don't have anything to do today anyway, well except for being with you." Said John and hoped that Rodney didn't think too much of what he had just said about just being with Rodney, and if he did he hoped that Rodney didn't look too much into it.

"I'll be there at one, ok. See you then I've got to go now, my sister is actually up so she wants the phone. Bye!" Rodney said, but his 'bye' didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"Bye!" John said right before he heard the telltale click of the phone on the other end hanging up.

John puttered around the house cleaning a little and he even went to the store to get some chips and coke before Rodney came. He had promised snacks. John was very excited that he would see Rodney soon but he was also kind of nervous. He spent the half hour right before Rodney was supposed to show up by sitting in the kitchen staring at the clock on the wall. He almost jumped three meters into the air when he heard the bell ring. He ran almost all the way to the door but he started walking when he almost tripped, he also looked around him as if someone had seen him when he was all alone.

John looked through the peep hole to make sure that it was really Rodney and not a door salesman or a Jehova's witness. It was really Rodney, John opened the door and smiled at him. He motioned for him to go into the house and then he shut the door behind him.

Rodney looked around himself at the décor of the house and he looked a little bit impressed, John didn't understand what there was to be impressed of it was a regular house with four walls a ceiling and a door nothing special.

"Did you have a nice trip here? You didn't stumble or something, right?" Said John, he knew that Rodney wasn't a klutz he just liked to pretend that he was. John was really good at reading people, he thought at least.

"Well, it was nice, it didn't rain and the birds were singing… Oh who am I kidding it sucked, I saw Todd on the way but I managed to hide a bit. So what kind of snacks do you have? I'm getting hungry and you promised snack, you didn't just lure me here to kill me did you, like in those movies…" Rodney started to trail of and John smiled at him, he tried to look evil but it took too much energy to try to not laugh at Rodney's rant. John cleared his throat and said:

"I have snacks, a lot of it. I'm not going to kill you horribly and hide you in the basement so that they can find you in three years decomposed and they can only identify you with your teeth…" John smiled sweetly at him trying to make him forget his worries.

John showed Rodney into the kitchen where they took all the snacks from the cupboards and the drinks from the fridge and they set foot towards the living room. The trip into the living room was a bit wobbly because they had to balance drinks and bags of snacks without dropping them on the way. They made it into the living room with everything unbroken and then they sat down on the bi couch in front of the TV and put the snacks and drinks on the coffee table.

"I'm going to flip through the channels and please tell me to stop when you see something you like, ok?" John said and looked uncertain over at Rodney.

"Ok, just start flipping" said Rodney and gesticulated in the air with his hands to go on.

John started flipping through the channels, there was at least 40 minutes until the marathon was going to start and he hoped that there was something good on TV until then.

"Stop!" Rodney said suddenly, "Flip back a channel, you almost missed it."

John flipped back a channel to watch an old episode of Doctor Who, thankfully it was a good episode. They watched it until the clock in the kitchen chimed two. John quickly flipped over to channel 8.

The first episode started and John knew exactly which episode it was, he had seen it quite a few times before. The episode was the first episode on the first season, it was called The Cage. It was the episode that got John into Star Trek in the first place.

Both John and Rodney sat captivated watching the TV screen while they ate of the snacks and drank of their Cokes.

They had managed to watch five whole episodes in silence when the phone rang. John stood up to answer it as fast as possible so it wouldn't disturb Rodney too much.

"Sheppard residence, John speaking" said John into the phone and waited for and answer.

"John, it's dad. I'm sorry but I have to stay another two days, there was a major problem here and I have to fix it. If you want then there's money in my third desk drawer in the office. It's for emergencies, if the food runs out or something, ok?" said John's dad.

"Yeah, fine dad. Bye." John said and put the phone down without waiting for an answer. John had expected his dad to be busy and he was happy that he was, because that meant more "alone time" with Rodney.

"Was it something important?" asked Rodney when John returned to sit on the couch.

"No, it was just my dad, he won't be home until Tuesday, the earliest anyway." Said John then he motioned for them to continue watching.

They went back to watching the TV, about two hours later when there was a little bit longer brake do to some urgent news report about some block up on the highway John said:

"I was thinking about ordering some pizza, I'm a bit hungry for something else than snacks. Do you want pizza?"

"Yeah totally, I'll have whatever you're having." Answered Rodney while he stretched his legs after sitting in the same place for a long time.

"Ok, I'll go and order." Said John and walked over to the phone and started dialing. "Hi, I want to order a pizza, I want everything on it, ok. It'll be here I ten to twenty minutes? Ok, se yah." John said into the phone.

"The pizza will be here soon. You don't mind all the toppings right? It gives one more to choose from." Said John and smiled.

"Oh, I don't care at all. Shush the show's starting again." Rodney said and turned back towards the TV. John just smiled and shook his head at Rodney's antics.

They sat and watched TV until the doorbell rang and John stood up to answer. He first ran upstairs to the office to get the money. He then ran to the door to get the pizza and pay for it.

John paid for the pizza and afterwards walked into the living room with the box. He sat down on the couch again and opened the pizza box. Rodney stared hungrily at the pizza that appeared before them. John smiled at him and then he took the first piece, Rodney wasn't that late to follow. The pizza was finished within minutes, they were after all two hungry teenagers with a pizza craving.

John stood up after the pizza had been finished and took the box into the kitchen so that it wasn't in the way anymore.

They continued to sit on the couch and watch TV for a couple of hours more, until John said:

"I'm really tired right now and I think that I'll go to bed, but I'm wondering if you want to continue watching TV?"

"Yeah, I think I'd like to watch some more TV, if I'm not a bother of course." Said Rodney and looked at John with questions in his eyes.

"No, you're not a bother. I can just get a blanket and some pillows and then you can crash on the couch, it's no big deal. I'll just go and get that now…" John said, smiled and walked out of the living room. He came back a few minutes later with a cover and two pillows in his arms. He gave them to Rodney and then he said:

"Good night, I hope the pillows are enough. If not you can just say the word and I'll get some more. Sleep tight Rodney."

"There's enough pillows, Good Night. See you in the morning." Rodney answered and smiled at John. John smiled back and then he left the room.

John had trouble sleeping, not just because he was an insomniac but also because he knew that Rodney McKay was sleeping on the couch in the same house as him. He felt as though he had thousands of butterflies trapped in his stomach trying to get out, and that was really disrupting his sleeping time. John hadn't lied to Rodney when he told him that he was tired, he was _really _tired and a bit annoyed that he couldn't sleep.

He had heard that if you lay still in your bed staring at the ceiling and trying not to think, then you would be able to fall asleep real easy. He tried it, it didn't work, he just wasn't able to think about nothing. His mind kept going to Rodney, he tried to stop it but it didn't work.

He had probably stared at the ceiling for hours when he finally was able to sleep.

* * *

_**A/N: **Here's chapter 5. I hope that no one's dissapointed. I tried to get it out as soon as possible, had some exams during the week so I wasn't able to be online. I really hope that someone reviews it helps me write. For disclaimer see chapter 2, but do you really think that I own the characters, I only own the plot. _


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

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When John woke up, extremely early for someone who had the day off. He stood up and walked down the stairs right after he had thrown on some clothes, he didn't think that Rodney had an inclination to see John in his underwear.

John passed the couch when he came down into the living room, he walked over to it to see if Rodney still was asleep, he was.

John walked as quietly he could out of the living room and into the kitchen so that he wouldn't wake Rodney.

He walked up to the fried when he entered the kitchen to take some food out, he was going to make some omelets. He was hungry, and if he was hungry then everyone else also had to be really hungry, John didn't eat that much food all the time as he had done the last week.

John was taken away from his train of thought when he heard the TV being turned on in the living room, which meant hat Rodney had woken up.

John checked on the two ham and cheese omelets and saw that they were both golden brown, he took them out of the pans and put them on two separate plates. Then he walked out into the living room.

He sat down on the couch next to Rodney and handed him a plate, a fork and a knife. Rodney didn't say anything just accepted it and started eating.

After they had eaten they just sat and watched the final five episodes of the Star Trek marathon. The phone rang while they were in the middle of watching their second episode, John picked up the phone:

"Hi, Sheppard residence. Who am I speaking to?"

"Hi, is Meredith there?" asked a girls' voice on the other end.

"Meredith? Oh _Meredith, _Yeah he's here. You're Jeannie right? I didn't recognize your voice when you weren't threatening me… Do you want to talk to him?" John asked, trying to sound none threatening.

"Yeah, if that's ok?" Jeannie asked with a bit of sass in her voice.

John looked over at Rodney, who was paying a lot of attention to the conversation, then he handed him the phone.

"Hey Jeannie, how did you get this number?" Rodney asked with a tone in his voice that clearly said 'I have done no harm, please don't hurt me.'

"Hi, Mer. Just so you know I'm really angry with you." Jeannie said with a very hostile tone of voice, then her tone changed completely and she said; "I got the phone number from your jacket pocket, you had a piece f paper with the phone number there."

"Why are you angry with me, I haven't done anything, right? And what do you mean in my pocket, I didn't have anything in my pocket?!" Rodney asked.

"You left me alone with them. Do you know how much they harassed me with questions like, 'How have you been?', 'How's school?' and stuff like that. I got so annoyed after a while that I locked myself in my room. Thank god that I have a phone in here, or I would have no contact with anyone except for my stuffed animals! Now, I called you to see if you're coming home soon, or is so much fun sitting on a couch pretending to watch TV while you're really watching _John._" After she said the word John she made kissing noises.

"Jeannie, stop it! I'm sorry that I left you alone to such torture, I'll go home in three hours ok?" Rodney asked her. John looked at him and tried to ask him questions with his eyes.

"Three hours?! That's too long Mer, I want you home now! Please, it's horrible here with them… Pretty please." Jeannie asked and Rodney could _hear _the pout over the phone.

"OK, I'll come home… Bye Jeannie." Then Rodney hung up the phone without waiting for an answer.

John and Rodney sat staring at each other for a minute, daring the other to start the conversation. Rodney started with:

"I have to go home now, I would like to stay longer but Jeannie really wants me home and there is no way that I'm arguing with her. If you haven't noticed, she's very scary…"

"Ok, it was fun having you here. I really don't want to go against your sister, I think that she might be able to kill me if she wanted to." John said while both of them stood up and started walking out of the living room.

They walked together out into the hall, Rodney put his shoes and jacket on while John watched. John really didn't want Rodney to leave but he had to let him go, it wasn't like he wouldn't see him in school tomorrow, right?

When Rodney was finished he stood up and walked over to the door to leave. John stopped him right before he was able to open the door by saying:

"I'll see you tomorrow in school, right?"

"Yeah, sure. Meet me by the stairs in front of the school, at 7:30." Said Rodney his voice was secure but John could see the doubt in his eyes.

"7:30, school doesn't start until 8:30. What shall we do for one hour before school starts?" John asked, while he smiled at Rodney just to extinguish the doubt in Rodney's eyes, he didn't like it.

"I was thinking of working on the bomb and if you help me then I could tell the Science teacher that you're helping me with my contribution for the Science fair. You would be co scientist sort of." Rodney started babbling, most people would think that it was annoying but John thought it was adorable.

"Yeah, sure I'd love to. I'll let you go home now, I really don't feel like having your murder on my conscience. I'll see you tomorrow then!" he said and almost pushed Rodney out of the door, both because he knew that Jeannie wouldn't be happy if he was really late and because if Rodney stayed any longer he wouldn't let him leave.

When he had shut the door he leaned his back at it. He was ecstatic, he was going to spend an hour, alone in a science lab, with Rodney McKay. He knew that there probably were many people out there that would have frowned upon his way of thinking.

He had so much energy that he started to jump up and down around the living room and that was the exact moment his father came in.

"What _are _you doing?" his father exclaimed staring at him as though he had grown another head all of a sudden.

John and his father stared at each other for a couple of seconds until John said:

"I was jumping around, what does it look like?"

"I was just wondering if I had to take you to a mental institution or something, it wouldn't be that hard to explain to people… Well, is there any food in the kitchen?" His father asked and started walking towards the kitchen.

The Shepard's were infamous for their skill to change the subject, they could be talking about someone's untimely demise one second and the next they were talking about the weather as though nothing strange had happened. It was a well honed skill.

John followed quietly behind his father into the kitchen, he did still have a small bounce in his step. He saw his father bending over and looking into the fridge to see if there was anything good to eat for lunch, John knew that there wasn't but he wasn't going to say that, yet.

"John, do you want to take the car and go to the store to buy something to eat or do you want to order something, your choice." Suggested John's father and looked at John waiting for his answer.

"I'm feeling for Chinese food, if you don't mind…" John said, he really felt like eating Chinese food, he _had _eaten Pizza yesterday and hi father always wanted Pizza when they ordered out.

"You know where the menus are so you can order while I take a shower, Ok." John's father said while he walked out of the kitchen.

John ordered the food and the guy on the other end said that it would take up to half an hour to get everything ready and get to their house, if it took any longer then they would get the food for free.

He walked into the living room and started to tidy up a bit, it was only the couch and the coffee table that needed to get tidier but he did it anyway. He took the blanket and pillow that Rodney had used down into the basement where they had their washing machine to get them washed. When he had put everything into the washer he turned it on and went upstairs to finish with the tidying.

The doorbell rang just when he had finished with his tidying and he went to answer it. He opened the door and paid the guy with the food. He called his father down right after he had closed the door.

They ate the food together and then they left each other alone for the rest of the day. John did homework that he had neglected during the weekend and then he spent the rest of the day reading. He was kind of giddy the whole day, he was going to help Rodney to _build a bomb _the next day, if that wasn't a good reason to go up early then he didn't know whatever it was.

_**A/N: **I'm sorry that it's a little short and late. I promised that it would come soon o here it is... If you're wondering why it's late then it is because I have been a bit tired and sick lately so I couldn't write... For disclaimers see chapter 2. The next chapter will be up this week as well..._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

* * *

John woke up giddy, put on his clothes giddy, brushed his teeth giddy and he didn't actually _walk _down the stairs, he literally jumped. He was really happy, even though he had to go up one hour before he usually went up to be able to get to the school and meet Rodney on time.

He skipped into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before he went out, his father wasn't up yet and he slept like a log so it wouldn't matter if he made some sounds. He ate fast, he had about half an hour before he was going to meet Rodney and it took some time for him to walk all the way to school, his father didn't allow him to take the car because he was afraid that John would wreck it.

John arrived at the school with fifteen minutes to spare Rodney wasn't there s he sat down on the stairs leading into the school and started to wait.

He didn't have to wait for long before he heard someone or something move behind him, he turned around fast and saw that it was only Rodney. Nothing to be afraid of, right?

"Hi, what's up?" Rodney said, it sounded quite awkward like he didn't know what to say or wasn't expecting him.

"Well, I'm tired and wondering how long you've been here because I have at least ten minutes before I was supposed to be here." John stated but the statement sounded a lot like a question.

"I've only been here half an hour, that's nothing. So, do you want to sit here all day or do you want to start helping m building a bomb?" Rodney asked sounding smug.

"Lead the way please." John said and directed Rodney to move in front of him and show the way.

They walked through the empty halls of the school silently, it was a bit eerie walking there it felt like you were walking with the ghosts of old students of the school. Rodney lead him to the same room where they had met on Thursday, John thought that it felt like such a long time ago.

When they entered the room John aw that everything looked untouched, it looked exactly like it did when he was there the last time. Well, there was one difference, the bomb. It looked more like a bomb than what it did that last time.

John was wondering what he was supposed to do, just solve equations or help Rodney actually build the bomb. He was hoping that he could help with the building, he liked building stuff.

He saw that Rodney had already started to move around and do things, John didn't feel like disturbing him just now, he looked like he was in his own element the place where he was supposed to be.

After a couple of minutes, where he felt ignored, he cleared his throat. Rodney looked up from what he was doing, startled, John waved at him and smiled. Rodney rolled his eye then he said:

"What?"

"I was just wondering what I shall do?" John aid and smiled sweetly at Rodney.

"I was thinking you could help me with these equations and with some things like piecing together the pieces of the bomb…" Then Rodney held out his hand which was full of papers, he also handed him a pen and pointed to where he could sit and do them.

"Yeah sure, I'd love to." John said as he took the papers and sat down by the desk which Rodney had guided him to.

John was so engrossed with what he was doing that he didn't notice that it had gone an hour until the bell rang for classes to start.

John and Rodney stood up at the same time, looked at each other, John smiled while Rodney looked a bit uncomfortable. Both of them took their book bags and then they walked out of the room together but separated when they got into the hall.

John went to his first class of the day, English. John didn't like English that much he thought that it was a waste of his time learning English when it was his native tongue which he had spoken all his life. English was one of the subjects in which he snoozed in, the other was usually History class.

John jumped a bit when the bell rang to signal that the class was over. John walked out of the classroom together with the other students.

John dragged his feet down the hallway, his next class was German and he had forgotten to do the homework, he thought that if he was late then the worst he would get was a detention for skipping a class.

The bell rang for the second class of the day to start and John snuck at that moment into the bathroom to hide. He hoped that he went into the right bathroom, He knew that there was _one _bathroom at the school that belonged to the smokers of the school and it was supposed to be full of smoke. The fire alarm was supposed to be deactivated, John had gotten all the information from his tour guide when he had first arrived at the school.

He looked around the bathroom and saw that there wasn't anyone there, not even in any of the stalls, John knew he had checked.

John heard someone open the door so he quickly went into a stall o that no one would know that he was in the bathroom.

He heard male voices and recognized most of them. One of the voices belonged to Todd most of the other belonged to his cronies but John also recognized another voice, a more familiar voice, Rodney's voice.

He heard Todd and his gang taunting Rodney then he heard Rodney talking back to them, mocking them. John knew that you should never mock or taunt anyone if you don't have anything to use against them and Rodney didn't. John knew that it would get ugly fast if he didn't do anything, he really didn't want Rodney to get hurt.

John opened the stall door quietly, so that he wouldn't get seen by Todd and his gang. Rodney saw him when he got out of the stall, John signaled to him to be quiet.

Todd and his gang had pushed Rodney up against the wall but all of them turned towards John when he cleared his throat right behind them.

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_**A/N: **I'm sorry that it is so short, but I have hit a little sna in the story. I will update next week and hopefully it will be with a longer chapter. I'd like to thank everyone who reads this fanfiction. For disclaimer see chapter 2, not that there's any reason for you to think that I own the characters..._


	8. Chapter 8

HI, I'm sorry that it's late and I think that the next one might also be a little bit late. The reason is both my school but also that a plot bunny jumped me and I've ot another fanfic that I might upload.. I thank everyone for reviwing and beg for your forgiveness, this chapter is also a little bit short. For disclaimer see chapter 2.

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Chapter 8

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_This happened in the last chapter of_ FromThe Past To The Present_:_ _Todd and his gang had pushed Rodney up against the wall but all of them turned towards John when he cleared his throat right behind them._

* * *

Todd was the first to turn around to face John but the others weren't slow to follow him. They dropped Rodney in their haste to see who it was that disturbed them. They did exactly what John had hoped that they would do, they just stood dumbfounded and stared at him, as though they had never seen him before, they also gave Rodney a great window of opportunity to get away.

John saw how Rodney quickly stood up, looked at John and ran quietly out of the room. John took a quick glance at Todd and the others then he hightailed it out of there.

He ran don the hall as quietly as possible to not disturb anyone in any of the classrooms. He was on his way to the front door when someone grabbed him and pulled him into an unused classroom. He started to fight back until he noticed who it was that was holding him, it was Rodney.

He knew that Rodney had noticed that he had stopped fighting because he let John go, looked at him in the face and said awkwardly:

"Hi, what's up with you then?"

"I'm fine, thanks. So, why aren't _you _in class, 'cause I know why _I'm _not…" John started to trail of and smiled at Rodney with one of those smiles that said: _I'm small and insignificant, I would never be able to hurt _you_._

"I have a free period right now, so I'm not actually skipping a class. Todd, the guys and you actually _are._" Rodney said matter-of-factly, he even stuck up his nose in the air, but John could see that he was joking a little.

"Yeah, I know… Sorry? Well, would it be too much to ask to know the reason that you have pulled me in here?" John asked and gestured around the room with his hands.

"Well, I wanted to make sure that you were all right. I'm sorry if I spooked you… So, what were _you _doing in the bathroom? Did you take the wrong turn on your way to class, I know that you're new and from America but they did teach you to read at your old school?" Rodney babbled, John couldn't help to want to stop the words coming from Rodney's lips with his own.

"You didn't spook me, much. I was in the bathroom because I wanted to go to the bathroom, is that so hard to understand? Of course they taught me how to read, think logically, would I be able to do equations if I couldn't read?" John said, both to stop Rodney's babbling and push down the great urge he had to just lean over a little bit and plant his lips on Rodney's.

Rodney was just about to answer back at John when the bell rang signaling the end of classes. There was one more class then it was time for lunch. John's next class started in five minutes and during those minutes he had to find his books in his locker _and _find the right classroom. He looked at Rodney and said quickly, right before he rushed out of the room;

"I'll see you at lunch."

He got his books then he almost ran to his next class, Science, and came in right on time. He tried to pay as much attention to the teacher as he could, but very time the teacher started to make some sense to John, well then he changed the subject.

He even tried to take notes, it didn't work out that well, at the end of the class all of his notes looked like a fourteen year old girls' notebook. The names Rodney and Meredith were scribbled all over the page. He hid it quickly when the teacher said that the class was over.

John walked slowly towards the cafeteria while many of the other students almost ran to catch up with their friends and eat as quickly as possible. He hadn't been in the cafeteria the whole time he had been at the school, he had gone to a fast food place that wasn't far away from the school. He had never liked cafeterias, everyone sat with their friends and you could really the diversity between the different groups of people, the jocks, the geeks and the other teams at the school.

He walked into the cafeteria and went to stand in line for food. From what he could see it didn't look like it was that good food, it looked like a pool of slop. He was quite glad that you had a choice of the slop and pizza, he chose the pizza.

He looked around the room to see if he could spot Rodney, he smiled when he saw him sitting alone at a table near the windows.

John walked over with his tray to the table Rodney was sitting at, he couldn't help but feel as though someone was watching him the whole way through the cafeteria it was creeping him out.

Rodney was bent over a book and he looked deeply engrossed in it so John sat down quietly to not disturb him.

John just sat there watching Rodney while he read it was intoxicating. Rodney had a special look on his face when he studied and concentrated, John had only known Rodney during a couple of days and he was already quite attached to him. It was very strange for John to get attached to someone so quickly, John never got attached to people.

John was ripped away from his thought when he heard Rodney's voice say:

"So, you came anyway."

John got very confused at that, hadn't he said that he would come and see him at lunch?

"Well, I said that I would, didn't I?" John said as he looked at Rodney with a confused look in his eyes.

"Yeah, you did. It's just that usually when people say, 'meet me at lunch', towards me then they usually don't come and meets me at lunch." Rodney said awkwardly.

"Are you telling me that you think that I'm like everyone else? Now let us change to a better topic, are you doing something after school?" John asked.

"I'm actually doing something after school, and before you ask, it's not anything to do with the project if it was then I would have brought you in on it before. I have a meeting with my chess club." Rodney almost whispered the last two words, as though he didn't want John to hear it.

"Chess club? Really? They have one of those here?" John asked amazed, they didn't have any in his last school, sure his last school had been a school full of Army brats.

"You don't have to be sarcastic. Yes thy have one, don't they have in every school?" Rodney looked a little bit hurt and John really didn't like that look on him.

"I wasn't sarcastic, if I was sarcastic then you would know… To answer your question, no, they don't have chess clubs in every school. They didn't in the last school I was in… So, are you doing anything _after _the chess club meeting?" John asked.

"I'm not doing anything after the meeting, you don't want to come do you?" Rodney asked but John could hear that Rodney didn't believe that John would say anything but no.

"Yeah sure, I'd love to!" John said as enthusiastically as he could so that Rodney would undoubtfully believe him.

"ok, then I'll see you after school. What's your last class?" Rodney asked but both his voice and his eyes screamed that he almost didn't believe him.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

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_This happened the last chapter of_ From The Past To The Present_:_

"_I'm not doing anything after the meeting, you don't want to come do you?" Rodney asked but John could hear that Rodney didn't believe that John would say anything but no._

"_Yeah sure, I'd love to!" John said as enthusiastically as he could so that Rodney would undoubtfully believe him._

"_Ok, then I'll see you after school. What's your last class?" Rodney asked but both his voice and his eyes screamed that he almost didn't believe him. _

* * *

"My last class is History. Where shall I meet you?" John asked and he could see the surprise in Rodney's eyes when he said it.

"I'll meet you in the hall by the Science classroom, you do know where the Science classroom is? Of course you do, you had that class earlier today… I'll see you after classes then." Said Rodney just before the bell that signalled that lunch was over.

They parted and walked to their classes. John had two more classes before school was over, the first gym and the second was of course History. He wasn't looking forward to History because the teacher probably didn't like him. He _had _pulled a prank on her the week before. He hoped that she wouldn't take his prank out on his grade, he knew that he was good at History he had gotten several A's at all of the other schools he had been at.

Gym was easy for him, he just ran track for a while. Then it was time for History, it didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. It started well and went well until the last five minutes, then it started to go downhill. The teacher announced that they were going to get their tests, that they did last, week back. The teacher walked around the classroom and handed the tests back, he got his test and looked at it. He noticed immediately the giant red F on the first page. He flipped through the test and frowned, he was sure that the answers were correct. He then took his History book from his bag and flipped through it for the correct answers and he was a bit surprised when he saw that all of the answers he had written on the test except two were correct, there was no way that the teacher could have thought that he was wrong.

The bell rang for the school to end and John walked over to the teachers desk and waited for all the others to leave. The teacher took a couple of minutes before she noticed that he was there and then she said:

"What do you want Sheppard?"

"I was just going to ask you why you gave me an F on my History test?" John said as calmly as he could, he had all of a sudden gotten a strange urge to yell at her.

"Because you were wrong maybe?" She said with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"But I _wasn't _wrong. I've checked the answers to the test in my History book and they were all but two correct! You had no right to give me an F to a test that I passed with flying colors!" Now he was yelling at her, but not so loud that anyone who might have been outside could have heard it.

"What do you mean I had no right to give you an F on that test? I have every right in the world to give someone who had _clearly _cheated an F!" While she said this she had started to stand up and her face was now just a couple of centimeter in front of Johns face.

"What do you mean with '_clearly cheated' _I have never cheated and I never will! How can you even think that I would cheat on a test that was so easy that I could pass it without even studying!" John said with as much venom as he could muster.

"I… I have never heard such nonsense before in my life! I know your type Mr. Sheppard, a bunch of slackers and cheaters all of you!" She said and John could see in her eyes that she didn't believe it herself.

John knew that there was no reasoning with her so he walked back to his seat, took his bang and then he stormed out of the room. He walked briskly towards his locker, opened it and threw his bag into the locker.

He looked down at his watch and then rushed towards the Science classroom. He got there fast because he didn't meet anyone in the halls, everyone had probably rushed home as soon as they could.

When John reached the classroom he noticed that he was the only one there, he hoped that Rodney hadn't forgotten that he was supposed to meet him there. He glanced through the window on the door to see if there was anyone inside, there wasn't. He then leaned up against the door and then started to slide slowly down to the floor.

He sat there on the floor for a couple of minutes and started to think about _how _Rodney had known that John had had Science earlier that day, he didn't remember saying it to Rodney. He was torn away from his thoughts when he heard steps down the hall, coming towards him.

John had his eyes concentrated on the floor so the first thing he saw of the person was his or her shoes, they were nice shoes. His eyes then traveled up the persons body and saw that it was a nice body too, he then noticed that it was Rodney and smiled.

"What are you doing on the floor? Did you fall or something? Do you know how filthy that floor is?!" Rodney asked while he looked at John as though he had lost his mind.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I'm _sitting _on the floor. It's quite comfortable." John said while he stood up. "So where are we going? Is the chess club one of those secret societies that you can only become a member if you pledge to give your firstborn to them?" John asked smiling.

"Just follow me, why would anyone want your firstborn anyway. I mean _why_?" Rodney said and looked at John as though he was a mad man, again.

John followed Rodney through the halls of the school until they stopped in front of a door that John had never been inside of before. He had probably passed it once or twice but never stopped to see what was inside of it. It looked like an unused classroom, from the outside that is. The window was too dirty to be able to look through.

Rodney turned quickly around to face John then he said, his voice dead serious:

"Remember, they might not like you, Ok? They might think that this is a ploy to get them, they are a bit paranoid. So, please play with me for the time being and if you want to come back and play again then you can play with some of the others."

"But don't any of the others want to play against you, I mean wouldn't you like to play with someone that isn't me, I mean what if I am bad…" John trailed of and looked at Rodney who was watching him strangely.

Rodney opened the door and they walked inside. When they entered the room John saw about ten tables and every single one of the tables had a chessboard on it. There were only four people besides John and Rodney inside the room. The people looked up at them when they came in but they glanced back at their games as soon as they could.

Rodney lead John to an empty table and they sat down across from each other. Rodney took out a box from under the table and from the box he took out chess pieces. They started playing and after two rounds Rodney had won twice.

"You're not concentrating on the game!" Whispered Rodney loudly to John. "If you won't concentrate then I will stop playing with you."

The reason John couldn't concentrate was that he thought that Rodney looked so delectable when _he _concentrated and John almost couldn't tare his eyes away from him. John knew that he had to concentrate on the game for Rodney not to notice that John had been watching him the whole time.

After two hours, in which John had won two out of four games, it was time to go home. It was getting late and John for one knew that his dad wanted to spend some _quality _time with him. John whom wanted to spend time with Rodney after school knew that it had to wait until the next day to spend more time with him.

John glanced up at Rodney, they had just finished their sixth game, and said:

"I'm sorry Rodney, but I think that I have to go home now. I'm supposed to have dinner with my father in about fifty minutes."

"Ok, I'll come with you if you want." Rodney answered, his voice wavier a bit when he asked, as though he didn't know what John would answer.

"I'd like that. Shall we go?" John asked and smiled sweetly at Rodney.

Rodney put all of the chess pieces back into the box and they stood up to leave the room.

They walked together out of the room and through the halls of the school in silence. They stopped once at Rodney's locker, but they didn't stay for long.

When they got out of the school the awkwardness started. John wasn't one for awkward silence so he wanted to break it.

"So, what did you think about my chess playing?" John said with an amused tone in his voice, and with that he had efficiently ended the awkwardness.

"It became very good after you had started to _concentrate. _It wasn't that good while you were daydreaming, of what I don't want to know, but you improved very well." He said.

"Well, of course it improved, I beat you twice! I think that that is a very big improvement." John said while they walked.

They talked animatedly about everything between heaven and earth all the way to John's house. Rodney followed John all the way up to the door, then he and John turned towards each other and John said awkwardly:

"Well, I think this is the end of the road, unless you want to come in and have dinner with my father?"

"Nah, I don't think that I will. I don't even like eating with my _own _father why should I eat with yours." Rodney said and smirked.

They were both smiling now and their faces were mere centimeters from each other. John who wanted with his whole body to close the little space in between them, he couldn't resist it this time so h closed the space. He kissed Rodney McKay. He was so happy. He could feel that Rodney wasn't responding so he pulled away and did th only thing he culd think of, he ran into the house.

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_**A/N: **I'm sorry that it's very late. I will post the next chapter soon. Please Read And Review. For disclaimers see chapter 2, you do know that I don't own anything, right?_


	10. Chapter 10, Rodney's POV

_**A/N:**I'm sorry that it has been a long time since I updated... I've been otherwise ocuppied.. For disclaimer see chater 2. But you don't really think that I own anything except for the plot, do you?! This chapter is in Rodne's point of view, if it's a bit OOC then I'm sorry, please RR. I also want to thank everyone who has reviewed it makes me want to write a lot more.._

Chapter 10, Rodney's point of view.

Rodney stood stunned on John's front doorstep._ John _had just kissed him. John had just _kissed _him. Rodney couldn't get the thought out of his head, he had dream about John kissing him ever since he had met him, which sure wasn't that long but it had never happened to Rodney before. Sure, he had had his fair share of crushes, on both male and females, but it had never been as strong as it was with John.

Rodney was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed that John wasn't standing by him anymore. He finally started to break free of his thoughts and noticed that John wasn't there anymore. Rodney looked around, but he couldn't find him.

Now Rodney started to get worried, what if all of it was a joke, what if John was playing a trick on him? Could John do that?

From what Rodney had gotten to know and observed about John the past few days said otherwise. It said that John was a nice and caring person who did anything for a friend, but Rodney could be mistaken. He had been before.

He turned to the door and thought; 'should I ring and ask or wait for him to come to me?' he chose the latter.

He turned around at last and went home. When he came to the door he opened it with his key and walked inside. His parents had left Jeanie and him alone again, it was quite a relief. He walked into the kitchen and the first thing he saw was a note on the table. He picked it up and read it. On the note it said, in his sister's neat handwriting.

_**Mer.**_

_**I'm going to stay over at a friends' house for the night. I'll be home tomorrow after school**_

_**See you later.**_

_**Jeanie. **_

So he was going to be alone for the night, he was a bit saddened by that. It meant that Rodney was going to wait until the next day to see what John would do and to talk with his sister. Rodney might be a genius when it came to science, but when it came to social matters then he had no clue what so ever how to get from point A to point B without help. The help was usually his sister and now she was staying somewhere else for the night so he wouldn't be able to talk to her about _the kiss_.

Rodney walked over to the fridge and started to take out food, he was hungry and he could feel how his sugar level had dropped. He made himself a sandwich then he went into the living room and sat down on the couch. He flipped on the TV and flipped through the channels while he ate. He noticed that there wasn't anything good on so he chose a channel then he tuned it out, he just had it as background.

Rodney was worried about what would happen he next day in school. He didn't want to experience one of those awkward silences and strained atmospheres. He wasn't sure what he should do, should he avoid John the next day and wait for him to approach or should he approach John an maybe get laughed at.

Rodney went to bed late because he had stayed up all night worrying about what he should do. He was so tired the next morning that he called the school and said that he was sick, he pretended that he was his own father, they believed him because he had never been called in sick before not even it he had high fever, he went to school anyway.

He stayed home all day and he hoped that his sister wouldn't be home early and notice that he had skipped school. He stayed in bed all day except for the occasional bathroom and food brakes, but he always went back to bed. He didn't know why he was depressed he just wanted to stay in bed.

He was ripped from his nice warm bed by the doorbell ringing and he had to get up to answer it. He walked to the door and didn't bother to check who it was through the peephole before he opened it. On the other side stood the last person Rodney wanted to see right then, John Sheppard.

Rodney stared at him strangely then he said:

"What are _you _doing here?"

"I heard that you were sick, so I just wanted to see how you were doing…" John said while his eyes went from looking at Rodney and looking with fascination at his feet.

John looked so pathetic that Rodney couldn't do anything but let him in. He led John into the living room and they both sat down on the couch. They sat in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes just staring at their feet and with their legs _almost _touching.

Rodney tried to think of anything, _anything _at all, to say to John to break the silence.

"So…" He started to say just when John said:

"What…"

Rodney motioned for John to start talking, otherwise they would have another awkward moment of silence.

"Well what I was going to ask was, what is wrong with you? I mean why weren't you in school today?" John looked at Rodney and Rodney could see the concern in his eyes. Rodney really wanted to believe that it was the truth, but Rodney had been duped before and really didn't want it to happen again.

"I didn't feel like going, so I stayed home. Why do you want to know anyway? Miss me?" Rodney said bitterly.

He could see that John looked surprised and slightly hurt but he covered it up quickly.

"What do you mean 'why do I want to know'. I was worried about you, I thought you were my friend, and where I come from friends care about each other!" John said rather briskly.

Both of them became silent after that.

So he at least think that I'm his friend, thought Rodney a little ashamed by himself and the way that he had assumed that John would be like everyone else, a backstabbing bastard who would sell you out for the slightest of mistakes. During the short time that Rodney had known John he had learned that John was righteous, kind and trustworthy. The kind of person that Rodney really wanted to be real but it felt as though it was too good to be true.

"I'm sorry. I…didn't mean to sound so, mean. I just thought that you were like _them." _Rodney said with a voice full of guiltand eyes trained on the floor.

"Who? You mean like everyone else at the school, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a social whore… Or whatever." John said his voice full of spite, not at Rodney, but his eyes were full of some strange doubt that Rodney didn't understand.


	11. I'm sorry

I'm sorry to everyone who've read this story but I'm abandoning it. I've lost my muse and don't really have that much time on my hands anymore, with school and everything…

I might continue this one day but not now.

If you want to adopt it then please send me a message.

Sincerely Blackdragon159.


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